Cranston East Season Preview 
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​by Alex Sponseller (​Cranston Herald)

          By ALEX SPONSELLER
​      The Cranston East boys soccer team is looking to make some noise this season in Division II after an injury-plagued 2021 season in which it grinded its way to the playoffs.
     The Bolts saw five starters injured last fall season but were able to make the postseason, much thanks to the stellar play of All-State senior Carlos Andrade, who was one of Rhode Island’s most dangerous scorers.
     Now, the team is returning without Andrade, who went on to play for Johnson and Wales, but returns a handful of seniors as well as players that missed time due to injury.
     The Bolts named five team captains and coach Richard Grenier is expecting big things from the bunch.
“Nathan Carrillo and Connor McDonough are a good anchor for us, David White is back in net and Nadeem Chaudhry assisted on a number of Carlos’ goals. Those guys and Donovan Rodriguez, he’s a senior that looked good (at the injury fund). Leo Rodriguez was injured last year and is back, he is showing that he will be able to help us,” said Grenier.
     The key will be for the Bolts to replace Andrade’s production up front. Although the team does not have a single player to make up for the loss, Grenier likes his speed options as they look to put points on the board.
     “You don’t replace a Carlos Andrade, you don’t replace an All-Stater. What we do have this year is that we’re faster up top,” said Grenier. “We have some underclassmen, Curtis Horace, Marvin Lazo, they are very fast and are going to help us. Michael Lopez was in our program two years ago as well.”
     The team is looking to not only win games, but to represent its community well when doing so. Although Grenier and his staff have not put any expectations on the season to this point, one goal that has been established is to make the postseason once again.
     “It’s always the same thing. We pride ourselves on sportsmanship. We want to play the game hard but we want to play it the way the Rhode Island Interscholastic League wants us to play - with sportsmanship. We want to play hard, play with sportsmanship, and be a playoff team,” said Grenier. “Our goal is to make the playoffs and see what happens from there. That’s the way that we’re going toward this season. It’s like a family here in the fall.”
     The Bolts will kick their season off  when they take on the Wizards of  West Warwick.

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Bolts down Spartans, 4-1!

      Cranston East started their 2022 with a resounding 4-1 victory over the Spartans of Scituate in the annual "50-minute" Injury Fund game held at Cranston Stadium.  
     Scoring goals for the Thunderbolt were Curtis Horace (2) and Marvin Lazo (1).  Earning assists on those goals were Anthony DeLuca, Fabricio Mariscal and Donovan Rodriguez.  ​

Bolts Blank Wizards, 1-0!

    On the blistering shot from 35 yards out midway through the first half by senior Michael Lopez, the 'Bolt opened their league season with a 1-0 victory over the Wizards of West Warwick. 
     With the temperature reaching close to 90 degress, the Green and White were able to limit one of the league's best scorers, Michael Strain, to two shots in the match.  
     Goalies David White (five saves) and Christian Gomez (one save) combined for the shutout.  
     Defensively, East received solid efforts from Connor McDonough, Brandon Natareno, Braidin Shaw, Anthony DeLuca, Leo Rodriguez and Chris Estrada.  ​

Thunderbolt down Avengers, 1-0!

After a ten  day lay-off, Cranston East bounced back from a disheartening loss to North Smithfield, to defeat the Avengers,  1-0, at East Greenwich. 
      Seven mintues into the game, Junior Jose Valenzuela scored when he took a pass into the box on a direct kick from  Fabricio Mariscal and beat the Avenger goalkeeper to the ball for the only goal of the contest. 
     Senior David White (seven saves) picked up his second shutout victory of the year.   ​

Bolts beat Toll Gate, 4-1!

    In a non-league game against unbeaten Toll Gate, Cranston East received goals from four different players en route to a 4-1 victory at Cranston Stadium.  
     The quartet of Anthony DeLuca, Curtis Horace,  Michael Lopez and Fabricio Mariscal provided the goals, while garnering assists were captains Connor McDonough and Donovan Rodriguez.
     Goalkeepers Christian Gomez (3 saves) and David White (11 saves) combined for 14 saves against the Division IV leading Titans.  ​

After missing the 2021 season with an injury, Leonardo "Leo" Rodriguez had a solid senior season for the Thunderbolt.

Bolts bounce back

by beating Raiders, 4-1!

    After losing  1--0 to Chariho, the defending Division II champions, Cranston (5-3-0 overall) evened their league record at 3-3-0 with a 4-1 victory over  Shea.   
     While playing the majority of  the game in a steady rainfall, the Green and White outshot the Raiders , 27-16. 
     Controlling play for most of the first half, the 'Bolt went into intermission tied at 1-1 when the Raiders received a penalty kick with five seconds remaining.  
     In the second half, however, the Thunderbolts scored three goals and coasted to victory. 
     Cranston East welcomed back senior Nadeem Chaudhry to the line-up.  The leading assist  maker for the 'Bolt last year controlled the middle and scored one goal.
​     Other  scorers included Jose Valenzuela (two goals), Michael Lopez (winning goal), Curtis Horace (one assist) and Fabricio Mariscal (one assist).  
     Goalkeeper David White picked up ten saves; seven of them were in a very busy second half. 

Senior David White earned First Team All League and First Team All Division honors in 2022.

Since taking over as the 'Bolts sweeper, junior Braiden Shaw, has done a solid job.

Senior Connor McDonough earned All Division honors for the second consecutive year.

Comeback bid falls short, 3-2!

by Alex Sponseller (Cranston Herald)

The Cranston East boys soccer team fell to host Pilgrim 3-2 on Monday afternoon.
     After falling behind 2-0 in the first half, the Bolts would rebound and tie the score out the gate in the second.         
​     Curtis Horace would score the team’s first goal while Connor McDonough netted the tying tally.
     However, the Pats would get a second wind and find the game-winner in the final 10 minutes and hold on late to close out the victory.
     East had a sluggish first half on each end of the field, with one of their passes deflecting into their own goal to put Pilgrim ahead 1-0. East coach Richard Grenier felt that the slow start put the team behind the 8-ball the rest of the way.
     “We came out flat in the first half. You can’t take anything away from Pilgrim, they came out and played hard right from the get-go. At halftime, we really didn’t make any adjustments. We just told the kids that they were getting beat the ball too much, and Pilgrim was beating up to the ball,” said Grenier.
     Daniel Rodriguez and Michael Lopez added assists in the win, while goalie David White made seven saves in net.
     The team shifted McDonough to midfield and played more aggressive in the second half to tie things up. When it was all said and done, though, the Bolts ran out of steam in the final 10 minutes of action and Pilgrim took over.
     “We put Connor McDonough into the midfield and that changed the whole game, he took over. We used all that energy to tie it up and then we relaxed a bit. Pilgrim built some momentum and ended up scoring the winning goal. Disappointing, but it was good for us knowing that we can come back in a game if we’re down,” Grenier said.
     Despite the loss, the Bolts have jumped out to a solid 3-2 start and are battling for playoff seeding. Grenier hopes to see his team continue to play strong defense and put its best foot forward as it approaches midseason.
     “Our defense has been rock-solid and you need your goalkeeper to come up with the regular saves, as well as the key saves. That is what David has been able to do. The goals that we gave up tonight weren’t on David, they were all defensive breakdowns. We just ran out of energy,” Grenier said.

East blanks
Sentinels, 2-0!

     After a sluggish start, Cranston East put together a solid second half and picked up their sixth victory of the year and improved to 4-3-0 in league play. 
    David White continues to be a stalwart in net for East, picking up his third shutout with eight saves. 
     With 23:10 remaining in the game, senior Jose Valenzuela, who entered the game with 28 minutes left, took a pass in the box by Curtis Horace and beat the Sentinel goalie to his left for a 1-0 lead.
      Sixteen minutes later (7:28 left), Anthony DeLuca stole a pass, dribbled into the box and lined a shot toward the far post and a 2-0 lead. ​

East's solid effort not enough in 44th Annual City Cup!

    Playing as the underdog for the second year in a row, Cranston East played Cranston West tough for eighty minutes, however, it was not enough as they lost to the Falcons, 2-0.  
     David White, who was making his third career start in the City Cup, had ten saves for the 'Bolt.  ​